Wrapping up Spring Break Week

Spring Break seems like so long ago after trudging through the last week of work and school, but I need to update this thing, so here's what you missed...

I was able to meet up for dinner with two of my favorite ladies, Tommie Sue and Martha. Since I have changed churches I don't ever get to see Sue anymore and even seeing Martha is few and far between with the Ethos/City Church divide. So we met up at Zaxby's and squeezed in some precious moments before Sue had to leave us. It was great fun. :-)

Me, Tommie Sue, and Martha

The next night I headed to Dalton to visit with my dad and stepmom and also go to a Creativity Party that my stepsister, Heidi had organized. The party was so much fun and I was pretty proud of the piece that I made. We created mixed media canvases and I think we all showed our amazing talents. :-) Here is a link to Heidi's blog if anyone is more interested in her art or doing a party of your own - http://www.crazyforcolor.blog spot.com/

This picture is a drawing exercise that Heidi had us do. We picked an object to draw and with eyes closed drew the object with our dominant hand, then with both hands, then with our non-dominant. I thought my plant looked better than expected considering I couldn't see what I was doing. :-)

Heidi showing us how to create the canvas.

Becky working on her art.

A close up of the prettiness.


This is my stepmom's canvas.

Mimi's canvas

Me working on my canvas.

The finished masterpiece! I think it turned out pretty good. :-)

Me and my stepsisters, Heidi (left) and Mimi (right)

At the end of the week I had lunch with my friend, Rob. We ate at Greenlife and I had one of the most amazing sandwiches I have ever eaten. A spinach wrap with smoked turkey, pepper jack cheese, basil pesto, lettuce, and tomatoes. So so so good. Spending time with Rob is always fun and I was so happy he had time for me in his busy schedule. ;-) haha.

When the weekend arrived I FINALLY started on some schoolwork. I am ashamed that I procrastinated all week and inflicted such torture on myself to finish everything in a 3 or 4 day period. When will I learn?? I had to create a wedding invitation for a calligraphy project. We had to use our own name and if unmarried could pick our spouse. I decided Justin Timberlake wouldn't be bad to look at from here until death do us part, so that's who I chose. Justin and I will be married in a castle in England on May 23rd. Please join in the celebration. :-D

Concentrating on my Calligraphy skills


The Process... practice practice practice

Tracing the swirlies

The final product!

Cavities and Flautas

Spring Break is a beautiful thing. I definitely booked myself up during my time off, but it's been great. The weather has been awesome until today. But I have big plans for school work today (right after this blog...promise..) so that worked out just fine. I have slept so much the last few days and I don't know if that is from the time change throwing me off, no tv to distract me, or just my body really really needing it. Whatever the reason, it's been nice. Tuesday I had to go to the dentist and get a cavity filled. (Boooo!) I was so mad at myself for getting one, but, oh well. My aunt works at my dentist office so at least I got to see her. Yay! We discussed television shows that I can't watch right now, but it's alright. I'm getting used to that. Everyone forgets and consistently asks - "Hey did you see _____ last night?? It was so.. blah blah blah". Everytime I see that DVR record light pop up I am tempted to turn it on. So sad. haha. Anyway...so I got my cavity filled and annoyed my Aunt Jeannie and Dr. Majors by forcing them to pose for a picture so I could post it on my blog. :0)

My aunt on the left getting ready to assist and Dr. Majors in the back looking way too happy about drilling my teeth.

After being numbed up and drilled down, I made a few stops at the craft stores to see if I could have any luck finding some paper for my calligraphy assignment. I think Michael's is going to be the winner for paper. Now I just need to START the assignment. Geez. Once that was decided I met my friend Candee (Candi & Candee...yeah, we're awesome) at Big River and ate lunch outside. The weather was so amazing and I was so thankful to be out enjoying it. I had the chicken flautas with black beans and rice. They were fabulous. I hadn't seen Candee in over a year so it was really great getting to catch up with her too.

Lunch on the patio. :-)

Now I am going to try and get some school work done that I have totally put off. All this time and I haven't touched one single book, project, assignment, etc... I am totally focused now though! (Until 6:30 when I have to meet Tommie Sue for dinner) :-)

Family fun and more

I traveled to Atlanta on Saturday to visit my cousin Cole, Carole, and the kids. I had a smooth ride down, no major traffic snafoos. I jammed out to some Rob Thomas on the way there and the weather was beautiful so it was all good. Trey had a soccer game that morning that I missed because I just couldn't bring myself to wake up early enough to drive down and get there by 10 am. But I was informed that he scored a goal so he obviously did fine without me being present. :-) I got there around 12:30 and we headed to O'Charley's for lunch and then made a quick stop for me and Carole at the scrap book store. I needed to look for paper for my upcoming calligraphy assignment. But, I had no luck, they didn't carry the paper size that I needed. After that we hung out at the house the rest of the day and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We played a little bit of soccer - Trey, Grace, and myself defeated Cole's solo team. That's right, it only took 3 of us to take him down. After that I played with Grace and William on the playground. William was scaling the playset like a pro so I mentioned to Grace that he was like a little monkey. Grace quickly corrected me stating SHE was the monkey. (Doh...how could I make such a careless mistake. She is all about the monkeys right now.) I asked what else we could call him and she answered with of course, the SLOTH. What? hahaha. I told her that he was cuter than a sloth, right!? She informed me that sloths have to climb a lot... and Willam does sleep all the time! Which makes complete sense. (She is gifted by the way. Yeah. Probably smarter than me.) I suggested a squirrel and she okayed that. :-) After a great day spending time with 5 of my favorite people in the world, I left about 7:30 to head home. I love those little boogers. The big ones to.

The sea monkeys that I gave Trey for Christmas. They are crazy looking little creatures!

Their dog, Colonel Buzz, who is obsessed with feet and latched on to mine as often as he could.

I haven't had the priveledge of spending as much time with little William as I did with Grace and Trey by the time they were his age, so I got to catch up and take him in while I was there. He's awesome. Of course.

Cute little William - probably on a pacifier high in this picture. (He loves his passies!)

See...holding on for dear life. :-)

Who couldn't adore this face??


He loves being flipped around like a little rag doll


More acrobatics with Daddy


Picture of mommy (Carole) taken by William (sort of...)


Picture of daddy (Cole), also taken by William (sort of...)



William's bedroom is a surfer theme and it is amazing. Here are a few pictures of the awesomness.

Grass roof window treatment and bamboo wall covering


Used surf boards gifted by one of their CA friends


Shelf with matching grass roof



I did get to spend time with Grace and Trey too. They are getting so big!

Monkey girl and Soccer star


Trey likes to wrestle with his dad too. He isn't defending himself very well here though.

Me and Grace

Me and Trey...he totally left me hanging. He was making a silly face too and turned before the picture was finished. Crazy kid. :-)

On Sunday after church I went over to my mom's to visit with her and my grandmother. As luck would have it, my aunt Jeannie and cousin, Joe came over too so I got some time with them as well. Yay! I was hoping to see Joe during my break so it worked out beautifully.

Me and my Nannie


To set up this next picture...I was having trouble (as usual) getting a good self pic with both me and mom in the frame. So she graciously took over to "help me out". This is what we got...

Yep. Much better.


Here's one that finally came out decent. It only took us about 15 tries.

Joe writing a scene for us to act out. He is seriously going to be the next Hollywood genious.

Joe and I with our matching smiles.

Today I went running/walking downtown with Dana. I have not been running since the beginning of February when I blogged it on here. Nor have I done any other exercise since then. Therefore, my workout session today was not as awesome as I had hoped. I don't know why I expected greatness when I have been non-active for the last month and a half, but I did. I was very disappointed at the overwhelming exhaustion that I felt after running for just a few minutes. Ugh. I need to get myself in gear and get in shape PRONTO! It was an absolutely gorgeous day though, so it was worth the pain. We did get A LOT of walking in so we still got a very good workout.

Before leaving for the big workout. Grrrr! (By the way...I should really reconsider wearing white until I actually have some color. Geez.)

After the workout. Zzzzzzzzz.......

Vacation has officially begun!

I am FINALLY on Spring Break! No work or school for 9 days!! I didn't think I was going to make it. Seriously. It was touch and go for a little while. I have been so grouchy this week and I know some of it had to do with needing this break so bad. I also have a lot that I want to do during this time off so I feel like I may be even more exhausted when it's all over. Ugh... I'm not complaining though. I am ECSTATIC to have the time to spend time with friends and family, work on projects, get things done that I've been putting off, etc... I'm loving it! :-D

This is me trying desperately to survive the long and painful days at work leading up to Spring Break. Woe is me...


Ahh...but alas! God loves me and sends me flavored tootsie rolls when I need them most!! (Seriously, these things appear out of nowhere when I am having the crappiest day ever and there is always just ONE random piece in the candy dish. God is good. So so good.)

So here's an update since my Lent posting. The no TV thing has been a little difficult. But that's the point. It's not supposed to be easy. The sad thing is, I almost caved and watched The Bachelor finale. I've only seen one stinkin show, but they previewed the finale a few weeks ago and sucked me right in to the drama. And THEN everyone has been buzzing about it and I am dying to know what happened. Why? I don't know these people. I don't care about their life. But dang it, I recorded it anyway on my DVR so after Easter it is ON. I want to see what the dealio is! Don't judge me.

The no snooze button thing has been difficult too, but so worth it. It is completely sad how much I use it. I realize now all the time I waste by hitting the snooze repeatedly. Not that I didn't before, but actually using that time to get things done makes it really stand out. I give up the snooze button every year for Lent and every year I think that "THIS is the year" that it will stick. And that MAYBE when Lent is over I will actually continue to get up and grab hold of the day first thing instead of hunkering down further in the gloriousness of my oh so comfortable and cozy bed. So again I say...I think this is the year.

I also said in my decisions for Lent that I wanted to do more things for other people. It sounds simple enough, but I can get so busy and so consumed with all the things that I need to get done for my life that I can neglect the simple task of doing for others. So this is something that I really do plan on continuing and being more conscious of. Last Saturday I participated in a work day with my church at Bess T. Shepard elementary school. I helped do some random things and mainly started a mural project that they will put outside in a courtyard type area. It was fun and I got to know some fellow Ethos peeps a little better so that's always a good thing.

Getting ready to head to the school for some painting.

Preparing for the painting of the mural.

Sunday we started a new series at church called "Compelled to Love". We're discussing how Love is what it's about. God is love and that is what we are called to do. Showing God's love is so important and it helps to shape our heart in an awesome way. We had a really great discussion about it on Wednesday in our small group. One of the girls talked about what she does to have more love and compassion towards others. She said that she tries to visualize everyone she meets as a family member. We tend to have way more patience with our family members and show them much more compassion and love than we might show to someone we briefly encounter. But everyone is important to God and we should try to extend that love to all people. I'm really working on having a patient heart. Because my road rage can severely interfere with that sentiment. It is a for real struggle to not want to strangle people on the road sometimes. So yeah... I'm definitely going to try and envision my sweet little Nannie next time some little old lady pulls a crazy nut move on the road and makes me so mad I want to lose it! I think there will have to be prayers and deep breathing to accompany this change over.

Tomorrow I am heading to Atlanta to visit with my cousin, his wife, and the kids. Yay!! I've been looking forward to it for weeks so I can't wait to see everyone. It will be good times for sure. :-)